Killed, a 'Brummie' Taliban fighter with an Aston Villa tattoo

Allied troops fighting in Afghanistan have long suspected that their Taliban opponents include British-born Muslims.

Thick Midlands and Mancunian accents have been picked up from enemy radio signals in the war zone.

But now there is fresh evidence that some of the Taliban were raised in the UK with the revelation that one fighter killed in a battle had an Aston Villa football club tattoo on his body.

A military source said: 'It was a shock to hear that the guys we were fighting against supported the same football clubs as us, and maybe even grew up on the same streets as us.'

The source said the body of the unidentified Muslim insurgent was found with the AVFC tattoo following clashes with the Nato-led International Security Assistance Forces.

The discovery adds to fears the Taliban is successfully recruiting hundreds of radicalised British nationals to fight against the country of their birth.

Tory MP Patrick Mercer, a former infantry commander, said the presence of a tattoo of an English football club suggests the insurgent had at one point been a well-integrated member of UK society who identified with his home culture, but was radicalised nevertheless.

Allied spy planes have previously picked up Birmingham and Manchester accents among Taliban radio chatter, while in April it emerged that a Briton had been identified as a Taliban bombmaker after his fingerprints were found on an unexploded roadside device in Helmand.

Wake up America, this is happening on our own soil. We need to be monitoring all mosques, communittee centers and islamic schools.